UEFA Cup: Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Spartak Moscow

[funster]

The final UEFA Cup group game, and after a few nerves being jangled, we made it through.

As is customary for an evening game, I started proceedings with a couple of pints with my mate Dave. It was Christmas bonus time for him, but no champagne this year, so we stuck to a couple of Wallops at one of Davy's places in Moorgate.

Arriving at the ground - having had another couple of drinks near the ground - team news was..... well, bit uninspiring really. Problems at the back with Dawson the only fit, and eligible, centre half. Similar problems at the front with only Campbell able to play.

Still, should've been enough to see us progress to the knockout stages.....

The ground was surprisingly empty. Disappointingly so in fact. Can't remember the last time I went to The Lane for a European game and there were so many empty seats. It filled up a bit as we approached kick-off, but no denying that the economic climate was having an effect, and with Christmas just a week away, probably to be expected.

Plenty of empties


As if to prove the point, more empties


The now customary pre-match huddle


The first of the early chances came to Spartak. Zokora had to provide cover on the left from his position at centre half, only for the referee to then fail to blow for a foul on Bale, but seconds later give one to Spartak!

From his centre half position, Zokora also launched what I considered to be our first meaningful attack. A sweet ball played from the middle with the outside of his left foot, but the cross that came from that was..... well..... left a lot to be desired.

Surprisingly - possibly not, given they had to win to stand a chance of qualifying - Spartak were creating the better of the early chances. A break down the left led to a comfortable Gomes save, then one down the right ended with the same result.

It was all a bit hit-and-miss though. With twenty minutes on the clock my overriding feeling was that the game had no score (somewhat of a bore) written all over it. Too many passes going astray from both sides, Campbell rather ineffective on his own up front..... how wrong I was!

An absolutely awful piece of defending from Gilberto led to Spartak pushing the ball through on the right, and the finish, slid under Gomes, meant it was Spartak who broke the deadlock. I cannot emphasis enough how poor the defending was. It was bizarre. It was as though Gilberto just stopped. Frozen in time, leaving Gomes with, basically, no chance. Never seen Gilberto create a chance for the opposition like..... oh, hang on.....

Still, only a goal down. Easy enough to get back into this, and after all, we had to lose by two and see results go against us to be knocked out.

All of a sudden though we were looking very shaky. Having been pretty comfortable till the goal, even though we didn't really threaten, we looked like we could concede another. Another Spartak effort came from a half volley taken on the left side, requiring another, relatively comfortable save from Gomes.

We seemed to snap out of it - temporarily. A decent long shot from Huddlestone led to a very unconvincing punch from the Spartak keeper. Then a very, very classy bit of control form Modric gave Campbell a sniff but it came to nothing.

We had, at least, started to look a bit more threatening.

Sickening, then, that we gifted Spartak another goal! Another defensive error, and another effortless finish. From having 0-0 written all over it, suddely we were two down, and there was a chance we'd fail to qualify. This wasn't in the script!

Two shocking errors, two goals conceded. Suppose you could have seen it coming. Dawson as the only recognised centre half, Gilberto playing at left back..... even so. Elementary errors.

The last action of the half saw Gilberto try to make up for his earlier howler, but his shot, half decent though it was, led to an easy enough save.

Half time, two goals down at home. Surely we were not going to witness another Spurs home defeat in Europe? Such a fine tradition till last season that had seen us lose at home only once, and that to Real Madrid! Now we were staring at a third home European defeat in two seasons! Worse, possible elimination from European competition.

Harry had clearly seen enough. Lennon was brought on at the start of the second half, replacing Gilberto. Perhaps this would give us a bit more balance with Bale retreating to left back, Bently pressed into a left wing position, and Lennon using his pace to give us some attacking threat on the right?

The omens were good from early second half chances. A good O'Hara cross allowed Campbell to get a header in, although he sent it wide. Then Campbell himself did well on the edge of the box, receiving the ball but shooting wide.

It was better, but it was still lacking something. With a two goal deficit to turn around, half chances weren't really going to cut it. It needed commitment in all attacking areas of the pitch. Disappointing, then, to see Bale and Bentley seemingly comparing notes on the left wing about their respective hair styles!

I exaggerate, but it felt as though the pair of them were more worried about their appearance than helping to haul us back into the game.

Lennon, thankfully, had no such worries. Although I'm sure he concerns himself pre and post-match with his shaved eyebrow..... He slotted a ball in from the right following a move that Modric had started, and it was the Croatian who connected, but his header went over the bar, leaving the Spartak keeper untroubled.

Huddlestone followed that up with a couple of shorts - one high, one wide - but things were definitely beginning to switch in our favour.

Modric got in on the act again, sending his low shot wide of the post following a good ball in along the deck from Bale on the left. The goal may just have been coming.

While Bale was beginning to do his best to prove me wrong, Bentley's delivery did little to cheer me up. I've moaned, and moaned, and moaned this season about it. From neither dead balls nor open play has he managed any kind of consistency. This is a player, lest we forget, that we lashed out £15m for. Why? For his delivery. The result in this game? Two rubbish, rubbish corners in quick succession. So frustrating.

Now that we were dominating the game the only way we were going to concede was through a defensive error. Zokora duly obliged, doing a 'Dawson' by totally failing to defend a high ball over his head on the left. The shot required yet another Gomes save.

It was a rare, rare Spartak chance though, and we finally made our second half dominance tell. The ball was pushed to Lennon on the right, and he crossed on the deck, for Modric to sweep in past the keeper. Finally! A goal back, and that all important deficit cut.

It was a decent finish from Modric, but I did wonder whether their keeper could have done better. No matter, we were back in this, and that's all that mattered.

The game was now much, much more open. We sensed the equaliser was there, while Spartak had nothing to lose by throwing themselves forward in search of more goals.

As it turned out it was the Spurs equaliser that came next. A fantastic first time ball from Bale allowing Huddlestone to thump a header in. 2-2. Phew! Sighs of relief all 'round!

Bale's cross was excellent. Absolutely no denying it. When he hit it you knew it was top class, and it just felt to me as though this is what he needed to be doing. Hitting the ball first time, with little or no time to think about it. The opportunities he had earlier when he had time on the ball had basically led to nothing, yet now, with a sweet left foot, first time..... this is what the lad's capable of.

Amazingly, even Bentley got in on the act of getting a decent shot in! Didn't go in, but it did require a decent save from their keeper to palm it away for safety.

With ten minutes to go it looked like we'd be safe one way or another, and then we were treated to one of the best, most theatrical dives you've ever had the pleasure to see. Usually such things aren't worth mention, but man, this was so good it could have won all sorts of awards in the West End! The culprit should've been sent off really! It would have been fitting.

With minutes to go, it was Spartak who were making the errors, and Campbell pounced on a defensive lapse but couldn't finish.

Another Spurs break led to a shot that was cleared off the line, then a good ball in by Lennon raised a few shouts for handball before O'Hara capped a lovely move from one side of the pitch to the other, only for his shot to be saved.

So pretty much, that was the end of it. No more action, and the ref blew his whistle to signal that we'd progressed to the knockout stages, and managed to avoid defeat at home! Very, very important in my eyes.

It wasn't an inspiring game. After what looked like a cast iron 0-0, two awful errors at the back could have cost us very, very dear indeed, especially with Nijmegen beating Udinese.

As it turned out, the introduction of Lennon gave us a little bit more attacking intent, and even though Campbell clearly wasn't cut out to play the lone striker role, we created enough good chances for our midfielders to get on the scoresheet.

You could look at this as scraping through even though we finished second in the group (for the second year running). It probably wouldn't be far off the truth. Lack of key players certainly didn't help, and the fact that both Pavlyuchenko and Corluka are cup-tied just serves to highlight once again what a mess we made of bringing players in during the transfer window.

With the knockout stages looming it'll be very interesting to see who is brought in to supplement the squad. While Harry may say the UEFA Cup is down the pecking order, I'd hazard a guess that if we can string together a decent run in the League over Christmas and the New Year, and we don't embarrass ourselves against Burnley, he's going to be looking at this competition in a very different light.

European football is of massive, massive importance to Tottenham Hotspur. We can't go without it. Its a horrible feeling not playing in Europe, even if its very much the secondary competition. Yeah, while Premier League survival is clearly top priority, and progress to Wembley for a second successive year probably second, settling for anything less than full effort to progress in Europe is not something I could ever be happy with.

The draw, of course, has already been made and sees us travel to Shakhtar Donetsk for the first of the knockout stages. They'll be no pushovers, of that we can be sure. Regular Champions League contenders they're likely to pose a stern, stern test. Much more so than Slavia Prague managed last season. The bizarre UEFA regulations mean the draw for the last sixteen's also been made and raises the prospect of a two-leg game against Villa. Let's nobody get ahead of ourselves though. We've got Shakhtar to get past yet, and Villa aren't likely to find it easy against CSKA Moscow. They're a very, very decent side. Once those games are done with, we can work out whether our European adventure continues, or whether we have to scrap for some other way of qualifying again next season.

Tomorrow sees us off to Newcastle for the last game before Christmas, and my last game of the year. Even I have to sometimes bow to the demands of the missus, so no Boxing Day fixture, and no trip to West Brom either!

You can be sure of one thing though. Up there tomorrow I'll be giving it my all, and hopefully, the players will repay it with a performance of the likes of West Ham or ManUre, rather than Fulham or Everton!

[thfcshady27]

tell dave i said hi!!!